Regulatory freeze throws fishing industry into chaos

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump's regulatory freeze has injected chaos and uncertainty into a number of lucrative American fisheries, raising the risk of a delayed start to the fishing season for some East Coast cod and haddock fleets and leading to overfishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna, according to Reuters interviews with industry groups and federal government employees.

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America’s $320 billion fishing industry relies on a branch of the federal government, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to manage coastal fisheries. Under a 1976 law, NOAAs National Marine Fisheries Service develops management plans for 45 fisheries, setting quotas and determining the start and close of fishing seasons, in consultation with federal government scientists and local fishermen.

Trump’s January 20 declaration of a 60-day freeze on regulations disrupted this process for several of those fisheries, delaying key meetings and causing confusion over the issuance of new rules.

The freeze allowed overfishing in waters off North Carolina of Atlantic bluefin tuna which could mean reduced quotas for New York and New England fishermen when the fish migrate further north this summer, according to a Massachusetts lawmaker as well as industry groups and the federal government employees.

“There's just a lot of confusion right now, both internal and external? said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association, an industry group. “I’m getting calls from fishermen asking what's going to happen.”